New 80 km/h Brought Into Force As Of 1st July 2018

The government has introduced an 80km/h speed limit on countryside roads in France from July 1st 2018 as part of its of new measures to make the country's roads safer despite opposition to the move.

The reform, which sees the speed limit reduced from 90km/hto 80km/h on all two-lane highways or specifically "on all secondary roads without a central reservation", until July 1st 2020 as a two-year trial. (See below graphic).

Several previous governments had toyed with the idea as a means of reducing highway deaths, which reached nearly 3,500 in 2016, but backed off in the face of widespread public opposition. About 55% of those deaths – 1,911 victims – occurred on the 400,000km of so-called secondary roads across France, two-lane routes with no separating guardrail.

The government has compared the 80 km/h limit to the laws enacted since 1973 requiring the use of seat belts, and the installation of automatic speed radars in 2002. Those laws also drew the ire of thousands of drivers, but contributed to nearly four decades of declines in automobile deaths in France, which reached a historic low of 3,268 in 2013.

The government also plans to crack down on the use of cellphones while driving. Police can now suspend a licence if the driver is found to have broken other laws while using a phone that could “endanger his own security or that of someone else”.

Other speed limits will remain the same: 110km/h on four-lane ways, 130km/h on motorways and 50km/h in urban areas.